SHIMLA: More than a thousand schools have been closed due to a lack of students. Several schools have been closed in Himachal Pradesh in the last two years. 1200 schools were closed due to a lack of students. The state education department says that not a single student came to study in 450 of them.

Many schools were merged due to a low number of students. Education Minister Rohit Thakur responded that several schemes are being implemented to strengthen the education department in the state. He also clarified that the state government is taking several important decisions to strengthen the department. The government aims to merge and reorganise schools if necessary.

He clarified that the action will be to merge schools if the number of students in classes 6 to 12 falls below 25. The minister also informed that a hundred more schools have been identified that do not have a single student. Appointments in the education department were frozen during the previous BJP government. However, the current government is trying to strengthen the education sector. Steps are being taken for this, including filling up vacant posts, Rohit Thakur clarified.